OUTLINE:
Painting from a ladder is something familiar to most homeowners. A number of fixtures adaptable to a ladder to hold the paint-brush and paintbucket have been developed over the years. There are serious disadvantages with these devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,221,658 discloses an article support for ladders. This device is complicated one having a clamping means fastened to a wooden ladder and a levelling plate on which to rest the paint-can handle. There is no provision in this device to place a paint-brush, e.g. over the bucket so that it does not drip haphazardly. In addition, the levelling plate is very susceptible to spoilage of paint. The device overall needs constant adjustment as the painter goes up or down the ladder, and is expensive to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,865,283 discloses a simplified brush and bucket holder. This device is multi-hook device with one hook going over a ladder rung and the other hook squeezing around a ladder rung in a horizontal direction and having a brush holder over a bucket. A major problem with this device is that as the painter goes higher, the distance between the building and the ladder decreases and there is less and less room for the brush and bucket holder. With this device the painter has to come down several rungs of the ladder to dip his brush. Also, this device makes no accommodation for the fact that the painter is right or left-handed making it cumbersome in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,846 shows a more modern device wherein the housing elements are basically similar but the device attached to the ladder is a paint-roller tray. As with the other devices this device does not allow for usage with the ever more popular aluminum ladder. Aluminum is not compressible like wood, with the result that these clamping devices dent and mar the aluminum.
There is then a need for a paint-brush and can-holder which is adaptable to an aluminum ladder, which takes into account the left and right-handed painter and which further solves the problem of decreasing distance between the ladder and the building, as the painter goes up the ladder.